The present invention relates to the manufacture of moulded panels in the form of squabs covered during their manufacture with a finishing material such as, for example, simulation leather, textile fabric, or the like, and utilised notably as wall coverings, false ceilings, screens, and panels for covering doors or roofs of automobile vehicles.
In present practice such panels are manufactured according to various processes.
According to one of these processes, the panels are made by casting a foaming mixture of polyurethane in a mould of which the bottom is covered by a film of polyvinyl chloride or of fabric rendered fluid-tight. The expansion and the polymerisation with heat or whilst cold of the foam in the closed mould make it possible thus to obtain, according to the selection of the foaming mixture utilised, a panel of foam which is supple or flexible or semi-stiff or stiff.
However, this process does not make it possible to make panels which for a constant thickness present different degrees of flexibility. On the other hand it is scarcely possible to introduce into the panels, during their manufacture, according to this process, inserts ultimately serving for their fixation.
In order to mitigate these disadvantages, the invention has as one object to provide a method of manufacturing panels which is simple and quick to put into practice, is of a relatively low cost, and due to which it is possible to manufacture panels capable of presenting different degrees of flexibility for a constant thickness.
Equally the invention has as another object to provide any panel made according to this method by way of a new industrial product.